picture day

START NOTES:

quick lil cute oneshot while i work on other stuff

word count: 783

Amity loved picture day. Sure, she wasn't a massive fan of the formality–enough emotionless formal photos with her family had made the entire ordeal feel like a hat on a hat–but the recognition as the top student (see the badge pinned proudly on her shirt) and the chance to wear something a little nicer to school was always welcome. She was never a fan of the uniforms at school anyways, the textures of everything were just awful .

With about as much emotion and conviction as roadkill, the photographer groaned a "Smile," before snapping the photo. Amity stood up, straightened out her long, pleated skirt, and walked away to sit with the rest of her class while she waited to return to class. Time to people-watch.

She found Boscha quickly, who was busy checking her phone and gossiping with her posse. Typical. She also shoved some girl in front of her out of the way so that her friends could meet up with her. Also typical.

Then there was Willow. They made eye contact for a split second, making Amity's guts twist. The other girl immediately looked away, glum and lonely. She wishes she could explain to her what was going on, so so badly, but her parents were always going to have the final say.

Deciding that she didn't want to be that sad the rest of the day, she looks towards the front of the line, and a girl caught her eye.

Okay, truth be told, this girl always caught Amity's eye. She never was quite sure as to why–she assumed it was because the girl had befriended Willow on her first day here, as well as that one kid Agustus. The three of them were a pretty good team. The girl's name was Luz. Amity and she had not met on the...best of terms. But seeing Luz in passing–the way she talked, her energy and attitude, the fact that she was still very sweet to Amity despite how rude she had been initially–had made her warm up to her fairly quickly, even if they hadn't talked much yet.

It also had Luz on her mind almost constantly.

"But I wear it all the time!" Luz protested. The teacher she was speaking to shook her head.

"No hats for photos. We're already being kind enough letting you wear it as much as you do in school, Luz, so can you please take it off?"

Amity blinked and unconsciously leaned forward a bit. Luz was being honest–she was always wearing that red beanie. She hasn't ever seen her take it off, once. Gym, recess, cold days and hot days, and everything in between. It was like the stupid thing was glued to her head.

"But-"

The teacher got firmer with her tone. "Luz, you can take it off once, or we can talk to the principal and you can take it off for good. Okay?"

With an indignant sigh, Luz agreed and clomped over to the box to sit down. She looked a little sullen. As the photographer got behind the camera and adjusted it, the girl reached up and tugged off the beanie. Underneath was a mop of some of the fluffiest, curliest, messy hair Amity had ever seen. It was knotted and tousled, but clean and shiny, falling down into the two long strands that framed her face. It looked soft, incredibly soft, and the sight was making a lot of heat rush to her face.

That had become a recurring thing whenever she saw Luz, and she thought she had gotten used to it. But it had never been this intense before. She squeaked a little and put a hand over her mouth, hoping that no one heard her.

The photographer asked Luz to smile, and she did, beaming as brightly as she did any other day. Amity felt her heart thump in her chest, loudly, slamming into her ribcage and she felt like she was about to burn up–did she get sick? She would've known if she had gotten sick.

She's really pretty , Amity thought to herself, watching Luz hop off her seat to join the rest of her class. She instantly replaces the beanie to its spot on her head, and something in Amity's tummy flutters, like butterflies.

As if things couldn't get any worse–she was already staring and she was ninety percent sure she was burning up–Luz turned her head a little, and caught her gaze. She smiled, waving a little, and Amity squeaked again. She waved back as best as she could, as the image of Luz's messy hair ran through her head again and again.